After Zhu Cai listened, he sat up straight, waved his hand to let the two beautiful maids retreat, and asked the waiter, "Oh? What bandits? Isn't it the valley on the other side of Bears Ears Mountain? Their gang of bandits has not been entrenched in this area for a year and a half, where is the bandits? Could it be a crockpot? Hum! What if they come? Why do you consult me about this kind of thing? ”

"It's not! It's not Yidou Valley, it's not the gang of thieves in the clay jar, it's a gang of thieves who have just flowed from Shanxi, known as the Xingtian Army, compared to Yidou Valley, this gang of thieves is ten times more powerful than them! That's why Wuzhi County came to discuss countermeasures with His Highness! "This regular attendant has obviously heard from Wuzhi County about the situation, so he looks very nervous.

Zhu Cai nodded helplessly and let Wu Dalie and other local officials come in to talk.

Wu Dalie walked into Zhu Cai's palace in a panic, no matter what, this Zhu Cai had the name of a vassal king, so after he entered the palace, he immediately knelt down and saluted Zhu Cai.

Zhu Cai waved his hand impatiently and said, "Excuse me!" Get up and speak! Tell me what you are going to do today when you look for this king? ”

So Wu Dalie told Zhu Cai about the entry of the Xingtian Army into Yongning County, and heard that there were as many as 10,000 thieves this time, Zhu Cai was a little panicked, and hurriedly said: "Since the thieves are menacing, why don't you quickly gather the defenders and the townsmen to go to the city to defend the city, and what are you doing here with me?" ”

Wu Dalie looked at Zhu Cai's posture of staying out of the matter, and couldn't help but feel a little angry in his heart, what time is it now, even if you are a prince, you can't sit back and watch like this!

So Wu Dalie hurriedly said to Zhu Cai: "Lord Wang, it's not that the lowly officials have to come to you to discuss this matter, as an official of the imperial court, although we have the responsibility of guarding the land, but now the county is already empty because of the construction of the city this year!" The soldiers in the city have not been paid for four months, so they have been paying for this last month!

Now, if they are forced to go to the city to defend against the enemy, if they are not paid, they will never contribute! What's more, there are only less than 600 defenders in the city now, but there are nearly 10,000 bandits from outside the city, and the disparity in strength is so huge, how can they hold the county seat!

So this time, I waited to see the prince, just to ask the prince to take out some silver for the time being, send the salary first, and then take out a part to quickly recruit some villagers to defend the city, otherwise, in the current situation, the county will not be able to hold it!

Then there are still some guards in the palace, and now the prince is also asked to order him to go to the city to strengthen the garrison of the city wall, if not, Yongning County is in danger, as the saying goes, there are eggs under the nest, the prince is also in the city, once the city is broken, the prince will not be spared! ”

After Zhu Cai heard this, his face suddenly changed greatly, and the descendants of the Zhu family passed to their area, and there was a common feature, that is, everyone cherished their wealth as their lives, and as soon as they heard that he was asked to take the silver out to reward the army for salaries, Zhu Cai's heart jumped suddenly.

"Nonsense! The military salary should be allocated by the imperial court, how can there be any talk of letting the vassal king pay the military salary? In the past few years, the king's fields have also been affected by disasters one after another, and you people can't even hold the territory, and the king's imperial village outside the city has been attacked again and again, so that in the past few years, the king's income has not been able to make ends meet! I haven't settled this account for you, but now it's good, but you have come to me for money, how can it be true!

But since you have come to me today, then I will also make a statement, there are still 500 guards in my palace, and I can leave 100 people to watch the house for the time being, and the remaining 400 people can let them go to the city to guard the palace, as for the salary of the defenders in the city, I will not take out the money!

My palace is not the only one in this Yongning City, and there are many rich families in the city! They always deserve the money too! "Even if Zhu Caidang categorically rejected Wu Dalie's request, this is worth it, if the bandits come, let me take the money out, if there are many bandits in the future, do you want me to pay every time? Therefore, this opening must not be opened easily, otherwise, it will not be easy to handle in the future.

Wu Da was angry and jumped to his feet, when is it now, this King Wan'an is still holding on to the money in his family and refuses to let go, there are several big families in the city, but if he King Wan'an doesn't take the lead in helping the salary, how can other families take the money out?

Therefore, after Wu Dalie and several officials in the county government heard this, they all begged bitterly, stated the stakes, and begged Zhu Cai to find a way to come up with some silver to help the county get through this difficulty, even if it was a loan to the county government, speaking of which, Zhu Cai finally reluctantly agreed to give Wu Dalie five thousand taels of silver to them, which was used to pay the garrison generals in the city, and recruit the city and countryside to help in the war.

Yongning County immediately became lively, a team of defenders who finally got two months' salary, began to climb the city wall, nervously looking out of the city, and Wu Dalie immediately sent a fast horse messenger, Pegasus to Luoyang Henan Mansion to report for help, in order to support the arrival of reinforcements.

Xiao Tianjian raised the telescope, observed towards Yongning County, put down the telescope, and said to the generals: "This time we can't be the same as when we entered Yang City!" When we first arrived here, we didn't carry much grain, and we couldn't count on our hometown to provide us with too much grain, so the most important thing for us at the moment was to get a batch of food in this area before we could gain a firm foothold here!

This time our plan to go south is to hit Yongning first, and Yongning County has been relatively peaceful in recent years, and the rebels have not been able to defeat Yongning County, there is a Wan'an King Zhu Cai in the city, his family has a lot of wealth, and has a large amount of grain, so as long as Yongning County is laid, and these grain money from Wan'an King Zhu Cai are taken, we will have the capital to gain a foothold!

After controlling Yongning, we immediately attacked the Lu clan, and firmly controlled these two places in our hands a year ago, so that we can attack and retreat, and there will be no big problem in gaining a firm foothold in western Henan!

The various local forces are intricate, this battle must be resolved quickly, after the Yongning County is defeated first, otherwise, once the Yidou Valley of Bears Ears Mountain and the crockpot of Niuxin Mountain know that we are here, they will inevitably come to grab the spoils with us! Therefore, after we first take Yongning County, we must establish a new order in this area before the year to prevent the officers and troops from attacking on a large scale! The people in this area are so bitter! Without food in the city, we won't be able to stand here this winter! ”

The generals immediately nodded when they heard this, and now their thousands of men and horses have gone deep into the territory of Henan, basically there is no way back, although they also brought a batch of grain and straw with them this time, but these grains and grass are simply not enough to support them for too long, so Xiao Tianjian decided to take Yongning first and obtain a large amount of grain, which plays a vital role in their next move in Henan, so Luo Li rolled his arms and sleeves and immediately said: "The general should order!" Our second battalion is still taking the lead, isn't it just a county seat? What is this? ”

Li Xuanzhu also immediately said: "Yes, the general should give the order!" Now that we've made up our minds, what are we waiting for? ”

Even Liu Yaoben was gearing up for his clothes to try, waiting for Xiao Tianjian to order him to do it.

From the abandonment of Mianchi to their killing in Yongning County, it only took a day and a half for the Xingtian Army, so Yongning County had no time to make more preparations.

The reason why Xiao Tianjian wants to fight Yongning County is that the terrain in this area has the same effect as that of Yangcheng in Shanxi, and there is only one big road to go in and out of Yongning, and the west of Yongning County is Lushi County, which belongs to the mountainous area of western Henan, which is very conducive to Xingtianjun gaining a foothold here.

And this area is the same as Yangcheng, there is coal and iron, once it is controlled, he can use the ready-made craftsmen at hand to be self-sufficient in this area, reducing the logistics needs of Shanxi, and there are relatively few officers and soldiers in this area, as long as the action is fast enough, with his current strength, there is definitely a chance to control this area in their hands.

Therefore, before leaving Shanxi, Xiao Tianjian had already made this plan, and after he conquered Mianchi County and obtained the first batch of war supplies, he led his troops to quickly kill Yongning County.

However, this battle is not as simple as Xiao Tianjian thought, Yongning County is the strongest city among the surrounding counties, and it has been renovated again this year, and the city wall has been raised to a full height of seven or eight meters, although there are not many defenders, but it is not easy to capture.

Otherwise, the local thieves Yidougu and Clay Jar, who are entrenched in the mountains of western Henan, would not let go of such a piece of fat and stop eating.

Therefore, although Xiao Tianjian had the idea of fighting Yongning in his heart, he still had a headache after he really arrived on the ground.

However, fortunately, the morale of the Xingtian Army is extremely high, the quality of the equipment is also very good, and the subordinate troops are complete.

After inspecting the city walls of the entire Yongning County, Xiao Tianjian immediately ordered his soldiers and horses to firmly surround the Yongning County, while Luo Li's second battalion was responsible for attacking the east gate of Yongning County, and Li Xuanzhu's third battalion was responsible for attacking the south gate.

Liu Yaoben's training battalion was used as a reserve, on the one hand, to clear the hostile forces outside the city, and on the other hand, to garrison the east of the city, to guard against reinforcements from behind.